Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1887-05-06
THE KANAKAS' QUEEN.
Kapiolani and Suite in Chicago, Enroute to
Washington aud to the Jubilee
OF Queen Vicy0ria.

|
Yesterday for the first time Chicago
was visited by real live queen. Her
name is Kapiolani, and she is the Queen
of the Sandwich Islands. There were no
soldiers drawn up in line to receive her
when the Burlington train rolled into the
West Side station promptly q. p NJ,
and the populace consisted of an idle
crowd of railroad men, few dozen curl
isity hunters, and two or three persistent
reporters. There was no one
J to cry in soft Kanaka, "Alohe,"
or Glove to you," and as for the
hundreds of people who at that hour
alight from incoming trains, they pur-
sued their way all unmindful of the pres
ence of royalty and its retinue. Yet there
was the Queen, fat and i'll proportioned,
with an olive skin and 3 dull eye, sitting
bolt upright and tanning herself with rare
vigor. No wonder, for she wore heavy
cloak with fur collar and facings, the tip
pets crossing at the back. 1t WAS a very
communicating cloak, and probably
could be purchased on State street for
$3.50. Her MAjesty wore also an ex-
ceedingly plebeian hat, with the two
white wings of bird as It's chief decora-
tions, and her large hands, one of which
she begrudgingly extended to her news
paper callers, were encased in black cot
ton gloves. The picture of Her Majesty
which we have here is not as she appear
ed yesterday, but is taken from Sand
wien Islands photograph year or two
old. The Queen is in mourning
for g deceased relative, which may &C
count tor the plainness of her attire,
and in the half dozen trunks that follow
her in her travels there is said to be
goodly quantity of finery. She is fifty
three years old, and has, therefore, out
grown the friVolties of life which her roy
al husband, Kalakaua, so delights in.
The Queen made no inquiry concerning
the Chicagoans who chummed with the
King when he was here, and even omitted
to ask after the health of dear old
Harvey ColVin, who as Mayor, entertained
Kalakaua when he was here, in the most
unconventional manner.
K,piolani's face is not expressive of
great intelligence, but it has good look
ebout it, and by her efforts to relieve the
miseries of her leprosy-stricken subjects
she has endeared herself to people.
AS for Kalakaua, he and the Queen do
not get along very well together. He is
dissolute and eXtravagant; she is rather
parsimonious. While Kalakaua is out
drinking gln-fzzes and applauding the
dizzy dancers of the sensuoas but for
hidden hula-nula, his good Queen stays
at home to attend to the affairs of the
royal household and endeavor to avert
the bankruptcy which has several times
threatened the government.
Queen Kapiolani, like Kalakaua, and
unlike the otner members of her suite on
this trip and her household at home, is of
pure Kanaka blood. Nobody knows the
origin of this Polynesian race; they are
not Africans, having no thick lips, and
their hair, while curling Wavily (the
Queens is already little gray, is not
kinky or WoollV. Thanks to the oppor-
tunities afforded by American railways
and hotels, Queen Kapi0lani is living in
good style on her journey, but at home
she clings to the native customs with a
Consciousness which is almost sin
gular, her subjects having gen
orally adopted European man
ners OF life and costume. The Queen has
a palace in which forty servants are en-
ployed, but she spends nearly all of her
time in little native hut in q corner of
the palace yard, sleeping on mats made
of the bark of tree and eating poi out
of a calabash. Poi is the national dish
of the Sandwich Islanders, being COM
posed of the pulp of the poi root, which |
is poisonous in an uncooked state, but
nourishing when properly prepared. DR.. |
RawsOn, of Chicago, who spent
some time in Honolulu as govern
ment physician, says poi tastes
like our -four paste, but that it is health |
full, and the best of foods for invallds re
covering from fevers. Queen Kapiolani |
is very fond of poi, and may be found any
day in her native hut eating her favorite |
dish in the native way. Her Majesty |
takes "three-fnger pol" which is of |
consistency almost as thin as soup. The |
thickest poi is eaten out of calabash by |
dipping one finger, and that next in thick |
ness with two fingers. Three fingers are
in eating the thtnnest, which is,
consequently, called "three-fnger poi" |
Another member of the party is Prin-
cess LilinOkolani, heir-apparent to |
the throne, the King and Queen
having no children. She looks much !
like the Queen, being large and dark, but
speaks English very we'll. She is in deep |
The Princess is noted in
Honolulu for her hospitality and for the
deep interest she has taken in the welfare
of the women of the island. She is &C
by her husband, His Excel
lency j. o. Dommis, lieutenant general
of the military forces of the kingdom.
The General is about fifty, and now
slightly intlrm from an attack of rheuma-
tism. He is a New Yorker, and plays an
even better game of draw poker than the
King, and tits said that his accomplish
nent in this direction secured him his
present post. His royal wife is an
smiable creature, a good deal younger
han he is, but not so young nor so pretty
Is the portrait here printed makes her
appear.
The Queens chamberlain, Governor c.
?. Iaukea, is handsome young man, who
wears fashionably cut frock coat and a
'ilk hat; also very high collar Upon
lin devolves the duty of plotting the
'arty on its tour, and he pays all bills
md buys all supplies. At home he is the
Royal chamberlain, and Kalakaua appears
o put good deal of confidence in him. (
This young man of five and twenty wears
nodestly his many honors. Besides be- I